[troutman]

Originally Posted by Daradon

Serious question for a moment. Why do they keep sending probes and vehicles to Mars? Are they still looking for signs or water or life? Is it general exploration? Are they trying to pinpoint one of those face rocks? I remember lots of people getting excited for the landings of these vehicles but not much newsworthy every coming back once they land.

Mission Overview:

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/ph...ion/index.html

Mars is a cold desert planet with no liquid water on its surface. But in the Martian arctic, water ice lurks just below ground level. Discoveries made by the Mars Odyssey Orbiter in 2002 show large amounts of subsurface water ice in the northern arctic plain. The Phoenix lander targets this circumpolar region using a robotic arm to dig through the protective top soil layer to the water ice below and ultimately, to bring both soil and water ice to the lander platform for sophisticated scientific analysis.

The complement of the Phoenix spacecraft and its scientific instruments are ideally suited to uncover clues to the geologic history and biological potential of the Martian arctic. Phoenix will be the first mission to return data from either polar region providing an important contribution to the overall Mars science strategy "Follow the Water" and will be instrumental in achieving the four science goals of NASA's long-term Mars Exploration Program.

--Determine whether Life ever arose on Mars

--Characterize the Climate of Mars

--Characterize the Geology of Mars

--Prepare for Human Exploration

The Phoenix Mission has two bold objectives to support these goals, which are to (1) study the history of water in the Martian arctic and (2) search for evidence of a habitable zone and assess the biological potential of the ice-soil boundary.

"Not much newsworthy"?

Past Missions :

http://www.nasa.gov/missions/past/index.html